Briefly: AT&T objection, Skyfire sold-out, PayPal vulnerability

AT&T issued a statement Wednesday refuting T-Mobile's claim to "America's largest 4G network." The Skyfire browser iOS app, which converts Flash video to HTML5, "sold-out" after just 5 hours of availability, and a security flaw in the PayPal iPhone app could let hackers intercept user passwords.

AT&T vs. T-Mobile

AT&T responded Wednesday to T-Mobile's claims that it has "America's largest 4G network," asserting that AT&T has better deployment than T-Mobile on the High Speed Packet Access (HSPA+) technology, which T-Mobile has labeled as 4G.

T-Mobile fired the first shot this week with a new advertisement that parodies Apple's award-winning "Get a Mac ads. The ad features a woman as a myTouch 4G and a man as an iPhone 4 who is slowed down by the "old AT&T network." The commercial goes on to say that T-Mobile has "America's largest 4G network."

In Wednesday's official statement, AT&T presented figures that it believes counter T-Mobile's assertion. "T-Mobile's claims about 4G are based on the same HSPA+ technology we have deployed to 180M people today, more than T-Mobile's reported 140M, and we'll have it rolled out to 250M people by the end of this month, substantially more than the 200M T-Mobile says it will have by year end," read the statement.

Also at issue is whether HSPA+ is actually a 4G technology, as it is often called 3.5G. HSPA+ is seen as a stepping stone to the faster Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology.

Skyfire

According to an official blog post, demand for the new Skyfire for iPhone app overloaded the company's servers, causing the app to 'sell out' in just 5 hours.

"The user experience was performing well for the first few hours, but as the surge continued, the peak load on our servers and bandwidth caused the video experience to degrade. Thus we are effectively sold out and will temporarily not accept new purchases from the App Store. We are working really hard to increase capacity and will be accepting new purchases from the App Store as soon as we can support it," read the post.

The new browser app for iOS had appeared on the App Store for a few hours Wednesday before being mysteriously pulled. The app offers a remote Flash to HTML5 conversion service that allows iOS users to watch Flash video content on the web, although popular TV streaming site Hulu won't work with Skyfire.

PayPal

According to The Wall Street Journal, PayPal rushed out an update to its iPhone app after being alerted to a major security flaw that could allow hackers to gain access to users' accounts. The PayPal app was updated Wednesday to version 3.0.1, which includes "an important security update."

Because an earlier version of the app neglects to confirm the authenticity of PayPal's website, a hacker can redirect an unsuspecting user to a fraudulent version of PayPal, although the attacker would need to be in the same physical location or on the same Wi-Fi network as the user.

Andrew Hoog, chief investigative officer at viaForensics, the security firm that found the flaw, called it a "colossal oversight" by PayPal.

A spokeswoman for PayPal told the Journal that she was not aware of anyone having been affected by the vulnerability yet, and promised that PayPal would reimburse any fraudulent activity resulting from the flaw.

As iOS apps deal with increasingly sensitive financial and private information, security experts have cautioned users to be more careful. Early in October, a security review found that 68 percent of the top iPhone apps in the App Store transmitted an unencrypted unique device identifier that could reveal personal information.

This afternoon when I tried it it was about 10-15 seconds to get a video to start.. About 10 minutes ago the video wasn't loading at all.. Their servers are getting killed.

Overall though, I feel kinda ripped off. Bought it on a impulse.. and to be honest it's not the best experience. The browser itself is ok, but a bit sluggish compared to safari. Waiting for stuff to load on another server side is almost annoying enough to not deal with it.. And, more annoying, since it streams live, you cannot fast forward through any clips. I guess it will be nice to have every now and again if I really want to see a flash clip but for the most part its nothing special.

According to an official blog post, demand for the new Skyfire for iPhone app overloaded the company's servers, causing the app to 'sell out' in just 5 hours.

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It looks like there is HUGE demand for Flash video on iOS devices. The developer thought that there was, or it would not have developed the app. But not even the developer anticipated the enormity of the demand for Flash Video on iDevices.

It looks like there is HUGE demand for Flash video on iOS devices. The developer thought that there was, or it would not have developed the app. But not even the developer anticipated the enormity of the demand for Flash Video on iDevices.

I wonder if Apple will change in any manner given this information.

Well, this information isn't exactly news. I'm sure Apple is well aware people want flash. Apple's stance is that flash sucks on mobile devices(and it does). I just wonder if flash were to improve, would Apple change its stance.

It looks like there is HUGE demand for Flash video on iOS devices. The developer thought that there was, or it would not have developed the app. But not even the developer anticipated the enormity of the demand for Flash Video on iDevices.

I wonder if Apple will change in any manner given this information.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Postulant

Well, this information isn't exactly news. I'm sure Apple is well aware people want flash. Apple's stance is that flash sucks on mobile devices(and it does). I just wonder if flash were to improve, would Apple change its stance.

And how much of this is just basic curiousity that is indulged because it is inexpensive? Let us know in three weeks how busy they are and that will tell you how many people really want Flash.

And how much of this is just basic curiousity that is indulged because it is inexpensive? Let us know in three weeks how busy they are and that will tell you how many people really want Flash.

It's definitely obvious which direction the web is heading considering I had to really search just to find video in flash format. I guess it's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have the option.

Well, this information isn't exactly news. I'm sure Apple is well aware people want flash. Apple's stance is that flash sucks on mobile devices(and it does). I just wonder if flash were to improve, would Apple change its stance.

There is nothing to change on their stance. The server is doing the work, not the local device with a limited battery and weak ARM CPU. The video being sent is in a format that excludes the resource heavy Flash code. Its simplified, which is exactly what Apple has been stating is need for years now, what MS and others are also backing, and what Adobe has been trying to correct with Flash since it was pointed out how much they let their plugin languish.

PS: Why dont I see Android browser apps that convert HTML5 to Flash since I keep hearing how much more efficient and great Flash is on Android?

Well, this information isn't exactly news. I'm sure Apple is well aware people want flash. Apple's stance is that flash sucks on mobile devices(and it does). I just wonder if flash were to improve, would Apple change its stance.

I'm sure Apple would jump for a good version of Flash for iOS. I'm sure they'd promote the hell out of it in ads too. However its Adobe that can't write a version for the iPhone.

Adobe only has to release something that just works, and at this point there are only two logical conclusions:
1. Adobe is lazy and wont commit the effort to code for iPhone
2. Adobe is incapable of writing Flash for the iPhone

I'm guessing #1 is unlikely because a Flash app for $1-2 would make a small fortune overnight for Adobe, and even a free version would help cement Flash as THE video format for the near future.

I think #2 is much more likely, Adobe has either lost the talent to code Flash for mobile, or the codebase is such a convoluted pile of nonsense that it's almost impossible to streamline. Since Flash came from Macromedia, I think its a very safe bet that it barely works now on the desktop.